Guwahati:A Salsa dancer from Assam will represent India at an international Salsa dance competition in Hong Kong. Dancer Sai Raja from Assam is practicing for the World Salsa Championship that will be held in Hong Kong in 2013. The 27-year-old dancer will participate in the competition with Kirthi Kishore, who has partnered him for the last seven years.

Raja, a trained gymnast with expertise in Hip-Hop, Salsa and other Latin American dance styles, has not just made the entire region proud, but has also given India a strong representation in international Latino dancing circles. Both Raja and Kishore have together performed and conducted workshops in more than 15 countries. “We are preparing hard for the coming international Salsa competition. We practice 8-9 hours per day. We get up early in the morning and practice different forms of dances. I don’t know what is gonna happen in the world championship, but I hope for the best,” said Sai Raja.

Sai Raja, who was born and brought up in Guwahati in Assam , has been practicing Salsa for more
than a decade. After completing school, Raja moved to Bangalore to learn theatre, but got interested in Salsa, and took it up as a career. Raja, an instructor and a choreographer since 2001, has won many national and international awards, and was the first Indian to participate in any International Latino dancing competition,
in 2007. He recently reached the semi-finals of “ India ’s Got Talent” and is currently training students at a Bangalore based institute.

“In northeast exposure is very less, so what I want to do is to return to northeast and conduct a Salsa dance workshop. I want to teach them because there is lot of talent in the region,”
said Raja. “The northeast might not have exposure, but definitely has lot of talent. Sai is one such example,” said Kirthi Kishore, a Bangalore–based Salsa dancer. Youth from the northeastern region are extremely talented and they are excelling in different spheres of life, be it sports, dance, films or theatre. Marykom, Oinam Doren, Jitumoni Kalita and Faith in Action are some of them who have not just represented the country but even won laurels at all levels.